Tom do this Tom do that
Tom, don't do that
count the cash, clean the oven
dump the trash
oh your lovin
is a rare and a copasetic gift
and I'm a moonlight watchmanic
it's hard to be romantic
(sweeping up over by the
cigarette machine
sweeping up over by the cigarette machine...)
Who can not love Tom Waits just for those lyrics alone?
In any case, as stated above, I am free from the tyrannical gaze of my control freak of an office manager. Last week she reached new heights of obnoxiousness and control freakage. Can you believe that she actually tried to get a poor innocent accounts payable girl (who was just trying to do her job and pay the invoice we'd sent) to wait over a week for a W-9 form?! For those who aren't familiar with what that is, all it is a form that customers get from vendors that has the vendor's tax ID number on it. All my office manager had to do was type in our tax ID number and fax it. But she tried to make the girl wait. I can't even begin to figure out why it was such a big deal to her. Shoot, she could have just had me do it. Whatever.
Anyway, I'm so pleased with the peace in the office today that the day has been going rather quickly. It's just so nice not to have a hyperactive, pursed -lipped, utterly annoying lady breathing down my neck for no apparant reason. I just hope she won't be unbearable enough to make up for it next week.
The only bad thing about this week is that I'm made jealous by the fact that half of the people who work here are on vacation and I only get five measley days the whole year. *sigh* Alas. Oh well, I'm getting one very soon for a preliminary float down the Oostanaula River in preparation for a canoe trip NERA has planned for August. I'm very much looking forward to it, especially if they let me bring Corey along (aka The Gentleman - I've been dating him too long to continue with the code names). I've never been down the river and it'll be really nice to actually know what the guys are talking about when they mention certain areas.
Also, the 4th is coming up and Corey is keen to find us some kick-ass fireworks. I can't even remember the last time I got to see fireworks with a good man. I don' know what it is about fireworks that's so...well...romantic I guess. Maybe it's one time when both people are like children and letting all the "surface cool" slide off. Hm. Anyway, all I know is that I'm really looking forward to it and I don't care where we see them as long as he's there.
Speaking of Corey, he was out of town for a couple of days on business, which continues to blow his mind, because he (like myself) hasn't had any experience with the ellusive business trip until now. In any case, it was an odd couple of days. You'd have thought he'd gone off to war or something. I really missed him and he seemed to really miss me. It was different for me because I'm usually ecstatic to have a couple days to myself to get stuff done. I got stuff done in this case, but I missed him a whole hell of a lot while I was doing my thing. I assume this is a good sign.
Until the 4th though, I'm still installed in receptionist/accounts payable hell, but at least I'll have this week to prove to my boss that I work so much better when the office manager isn't here. Maybe then he'll help me out and tell her to lay off.
Here's some more Tom Waits (get over it, he rules) - "Eyeball Kid" in honor of a conversation that took place yesterday afternoon.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Monday, June 11, 2007
Quandaries
Cause everything is free now, that's what I say
No one's gotta listen to the words in my head
Someone hit the big score, I figured it out
And I'm gonna do it anyway, even if it doesn't pay
Do you ever get to that point where you just can't get to where you think you're headed soon enough? Well, that's where I am.
Work is driving me batshit right now, which is just absurd considering how easy this job is. But now all of a sudden they want me to be Queen Mother to all the service men who don't particularly want to be mothered. So I tell them where to go, but they go someplace else anyway or they whine and complain about it until I wear them down. So like high school students. I just can't wait to be done with my MT certification so I can just sit and type all day without being bothered or forced to answer the phone or corral unruly, arrogant AC/HVAC Service Techs.
I'm also good and ready to get going on my book again. I've had a hard time staying focused the last six or so months, and I just don't know where to go from where I left off. But it's time to start figuring all that out. I've got a novel to finish, damn it!!
And while I've got a break from classes, I'm going to catch up with some reading and work on my vocabulary some. One thing that comes from dating a man like The Gentleman is the occasional need for a dictionary when he speaks. I keep up with him really well most of the time, but he's used a few words that I KNOW I should be more familiar with. That and it'll keep my writing and my brain from stagnating.
So there's all that swimming around in my head - the desire to be surrounded by scholars and to be a scholar again as opposed to being surrounded by rednecks and being every other girl in Gordon County. *sigh* Sometimes I wish I could have managed the whole teaching thing, but then I'd probably be even more miserable than I am now in my work. Not that I'm all that miserable. I just feel....lazy I guess.
On top of this, there's a little bit of a hitch concerning The Gentleman. No, no, everything is still great between us (better than great even), but it's not great between him and a friend of his. I understand what the friend is worried about because it's happened to me. My best friend started dating someone and all of a sudden I didn't hear from him for weeks at a time. Then he married the girl and now I speak to him maybe once every three to four months.
The Gentleman's friend is afraid that he'll forget about their friendship and spend all his time with me. Which I wouldn't allow anyway. A man's friends are part of him, so you have to get used to it. If you're lucky, they'll love you and you'll love them. I'm just about certain that I'll get along famously with the friend considering all The Gentleman has told me. We just have to keep the friend from having another episode of vitriol against my poor sweet Gentleman who is being a thousand times more conscientious about this than my best friend ever was.
But apparently this may be resolved soon. I think the friend may be chilling out a little and I think at some point this week or this weekend, I'll actually be able to hang out with them. We'll see.
Other than that, The Gentleman front is just...well...friggin' fabulous. I'm barely able to express just how fabulous. But maybe that's another blog for another day.
Here's some Gillian Welch - Just because she's wonderful and I love this song: Caleb Meyer
No one's gotta listen to the words in my head
Someone hit the big score, I figured it out
And I'm gonna do it anyway, even if it doesn't pay
Do you ever get to that point where you just can't get to where you think you're headed soon enough? Well, that's where I am.
Work is driving me batshit right now, which is just absurd considering how easy this job is. But now all of a sudden they want me to be Queen Mother to all the service men who don't particularly want to be mothered. So I tell them where to go, but they go someplace else anyway or they whine and complain about it until I wear them down. So like high school students. I just can't wait to be done with my MT certification so I can just sit and type all day without being bothered or forced to answer the phone or corral unruly, arrogant AC/HVAC Service Techs.
I'm also good and ready to get going on my book again. I've had a hard time staying focused the last six or so months, and I just don't know where to go from where I left off. But it's time to start figuring all that out. I've got a novel to finish, damn it!!
And while I've got a break from classes, I'm going to catch up with some reading and work on my vocabulary some. One thing that comes from dating a man like The Gentleman is the occasional need for a dictionary when he speaks. I keep up with him really well most of the time, but he's used a few words that I KNOW I should be more familiar with. That and it'll keep my writing and my brain from stagnating.
So there's all that swimming around in my head - the desire to be surrounded by scholars and to be a scholar again as opposed to being surrounded by rednecks and being every other girl in Gordon County. *sigh* Sometimes I wish I could have managed the whole teaching thing, but then I'd probably be even more miserable than I am now in my work. Not that I'm all that miserable. I just feel....lazy I guess.
On top of this, there's a little bit of a hitch concerning The Gentleman. No, no, everything is still great between us (better than great even), but it's not great between him and a friend of his. I understand what the friend is worried about because it's happened to me. My best friend started dating someone and all of a sudden I didn't hear from him for weeks at a time. Then he married the girl and now I speak to him maybe once every three to four months.
The Gentleman's friend is afraid that he'll forget about their friendship and spend all his time with me. Which I wouldn't allow anyway. A man's friends are part of him, so you have to get used to it. If you're lucky, they'll love you and you'll love them. I'm just about certain that I'll get along famously with the friend considering all The Gentleman has told me. We just have to keep the friend from having another episode of vitriol against my poor sweet Gentleman who is being a thousand times more conscientious about this than my best friend ever was.
But apparently this may be resolved soon. I think the friend may be chilling out a little and I think at some point this week or this weekend, I'll actually be able to hang out with them. We'll see.
Other than that, The Gentleman front is just...well...friggin' fabulous. I'm barely able to express just how fabulous. But maybe that's another blog for another day.
Here's some Gillian Welch - Just because she's wonderful and I love this song: Caleb Meyer
Thursday, May 31, 2007
"A 68 is Passing in Alabama..."
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your mouth,
Blowing down the backroads headin' south.
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,
You're an idiot, babe.
It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.
I tried my best to keep from laughing when I heard a young lady from my Anatomy class speak those words; "Hell yeah, a 68 is passing in Alabama." But in the process of trying not to laugh, the slight depression set in. The depression of a former teacher who is surrounded by people who probably would have been responsible for her five gray hairs had these folks been in her class.
It really annoys me how so many people place little to no value on education or intelligence. The perfect example of this is my Anatomy class. I make really good grades in that class because...well...it's really friggin' easy. It's not like a pre-med anatomy class. It's more "Anatomy Lite." It's all common sense and a little Latin. In any case, I continue to get flashbacks to high school because I often get comments like "What'd you make, a hundred and three?" and then I am ignored. You might as well put a stamp on my forehead that says "pariah."
It's not that this hurts my feelings anymore because it doesn't. I learned my lesson about being needlessly embarassed by my grades in high school. My frustration has absolutely nothing to do with me. I just really worry about the state of the world when a 68 is considered a good grade.
Over the years, the manner in which we do things has become less and less "thought-friendly." Instead of reading books most folks just watch a movie or TV. Education promotes test scores as opposed to actual knowledge and students aren't taught how to think or apply what they've memorized. Often, conversation is limited to gossip or what we saw on that show or that. Instead of getting outside, a lot of folks just stay in with the Playstation or whatever the big game machine is now.
Now, this is not to say that these things don't have their place. Yes, I miss my cable sometimes and yes sometimes my conversation is limited to music or movies. I watch movies all the time and I admit that I am slightly addicted to Civilization III and The SIMS. Everyone should enjoy these types of simple pleasures. My concern is the total lack of any desire to do anything that might make a person actually THINK. A lot of folks will do anything in their power to avoid answering a tough question or solving a difficult problem or reflecting on an issue.
I'm probably just babbling, but this really bothers me. What is this country's problem with being educated or smart? All the way up until about 1930 or 1940, everyone was still taught Latin. Latin is a major key to so many other things: law, composition, medicine, physics, foreign (romance) languages, etc. Now you're doing well to find a high school (or college) that even offers it as a course. Meanwhile, overseas, it's not uncommon (AT ALL) to find someone who can speak at least three languages fluently. A lot of Americans still struggle with English.
I recently saw Idiocracy. It's a dreadful movie, but it makes an interesting point. Most of the movie is set in the future. It's a future in which humanity has actually deevolved. Instead of getting stronger and smarter, human beings had gotten considerably less intelligent - almost a regression back to cavemen. The cause for this (as explained in the movie) was an oversaturation of advertisments (i.e. corporations control EVERYTHING - I mean EVERYTHING); too much reproduction from the *ahem* shallower end of the gene pool; and too little reproduction from the deeper end. It's a silly idea, but one that anyone (especially anyone surrounded by Jerry Springer episodes) can easily see the basis of. It's scary to think of it, but I could almost see this being a possible reality.
I hope I'm not coming off as elitist or snooty. I just wish the populous would develop a natural curiosity for more than pop singers and reality shows.
Being maybe slightly hypocritical in my choice of video today. Just seemed appropriate. :^)
Blowing down the backroads headin' south.
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,
You're an idiot, babe.
It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.
I tried my best to keep from laughing when I heard a young lady from my Anatomy class speak those words; "Hell yeah, a 68 is passing in Alabama." But in the process of trying not to laugh, the slight depression set in. The depression of a former teacher who is surrounded by people who probably would have been responsible for her five gray hairs had these folks been in her class.
It really annoys me how so many people place little to no value on education or intelligence. The perfect example of this is my Anatomy class. I make really good grades in that class because...well...it's really friggin' easy. It's not like a pre-med anatomy class. It's more "Anatomy Lite." It's all common sense and a little Latin. In any case, I continue to get flashbacks to high school because I often get comments like "What'd you make, a hundred and three?" and then I am ignored. You might as well put a stamp on my forehead that says "pariah."
It's not that this hurts my feelings anymore because it doesn't. I learned my lesson about being needlessly embarassed by my grades in high school. My frustration has absolutely nothing to do with me. I just really worry about the state of the world when a 68 is considered a good grade.
Over the years, the manner in which we do things has become less and less "thought-friendly." Instead of reading books most folks just watch a movie or TV. Education promotes test scores as opposed to actual knowledge and students aren't taught how to think or apply what they've memorized. Often, conversation is limited to gossip or what we saw on that show or that. Instead of getting outside, a lot of folks just stay in with the Playstation or whatever the big game machine is now.
Now, this is not to say that these things don't have their place. Yes, I miss my cable sometimes and yes sometimes my conversation is limited to music or movies. I watch movies all the time and I admit that I am slightly addicted to Civilization III and The SIMS. Everyone should enjoy these types of simple pleasures. My concern is the total lack of any desire to do anything that might make a person actually THINK. A lot of folks will do anything in their power to avoid answering a tough question or solving a difficult problem or reflecting on an issue.
I'm probably just babbling, but this really bothers me. What is this country's problem with being educated or smart? All the way up until about 1930 or 1940, everyone was still taught Latin. Latin is a major key to so many other things: law, composition, medicine, physics, foreign (romance) languages, etc. Now you're doing well to find a high school (or college) that even offers it as a course. Meanwhile, overseas, it's not uncommon (AT ALL) to find someone who can speak at least three languages fluently. A lot of Americans still struggle with English.
I recently saw Idiocracy. It's a dreadful movie, but it makes an interesting point. Most of the movie is set in the future. It's a future in which humanity has actually deevolved. Instead of getting stronger and smarter, human beings had gotten considerably less intelligent - almost a regression back to cavemen. The cause for this (as explained in the movie) was an oversaturation of advertisments (i.e. corporations control EVERYTHING - I mean EVERYTHING); too much reproduction from the *ahem* shallower end of the gene pool; and too little reproduction from the deeper end. It's a silly idea, but one that anyone (especially anyone surrounded by Jerry Springer episodes) can easily see the basis of. It's scary to think of it, but I could almost see this being a possible reality.
I hope I'm not coming off as elitist or snooty. I just wish the populous would develop a natural curiosity for more than pop singers and reality shows.
Being maybe slightly hypocritical in my choice of video today. Just seemed appropriate. :^)
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